Iran’s morality police have resumed patrolling the streets to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf after pulling back in response to nationwide protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman in their custody.
Authorities had struggled to contain the mass protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in September. The protests largely died down earlier this year following a brutal crackdown in which over 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 detained.
Though morality police were rarely seen patrolling the streets, authorities insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had not changed. Iran’s clerical rulers view the hijab as a key pillar of the Islamic revolution that brought them to power more than four decades ago.